Browsing by Subject "työyhteisösovittelu"

Aims. The aim of this master's thesis was to gain insights to the nature of the workplace mediation field and mediators in Finland. The purpose is to fulfil the current research gap on workplace mediators as similar studies have not been conducted before. This research focuses on workplace mediators' orientations which are considered the internalized theories of practice, the perceptions of mediation process, the roles of participants and the intervener and goals for the mediation intervention. Orientation reflects on mediators' actions and participants' autonomy in situational mediation framework and its' explication has been acknowledged to be part of mediators' ethical principles. This research explores if congruences can be identified within theoretically formulated orientation variables and between previous mediation literature. Further, this study explores whether these orientation dimensions can be utilized in distinguishing clusters amongst mediators. Methods. The research data was collected in January 2020 by using an electronic questionnaire. Re-spondents, who identified as workplace mediators (N = 99), form a self-assorted sample of population. The questionnaire contained descriptive and orientation-related variables along with questions considering mediation experience and training. Orientation dimensions were extracted with principal axis factoring method. Further, the respondents were divided into four different orientation pro-file subgroups by using Two-Step Cluster analysis. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to explore if orientation profile group memberships could be predicted by demographic or mediation experience related antecedents. Results and conclusions. Three orientation dimensions were identified from the research data. Based on the content analysis which builds upon the theoretical framework, the dimensions were labelled as evaluative, facilitative and transformative. Based on the orientation dimensions, four distinguish orientation profile subgroups were identified amongst workplace mediators in Finland. The orientation dimensions overlap and emerge interrelatedly contradicting the traditional and typical representations of theoretically formulated approaches to mediation. The explanatory variables selected for the multinomial logistic regression model were incapable to predict memberships to different orientation profile groups.